Ultrasound scanner in your pocket will set new standards in price and practical benefits

Large appliances deliver the best images, but a new type of ultrasound scanners to take away could create a whole new market segment. Physicians look forward to more flexibility.

The start-up Butterfly Network from the US state of Connecticut wants to bring before the end of this year, a new ultrasound scanner on the market, which is much easier to handle and less expensive than any previously available models. The device sends its images to a smartphone and will be priced at 1,199 US dollars. As previously first it uses for generating ultrasonic waves instead of vibrating crystals tiny drums that are etched on a semiconductor chip. The reported Technology Review online in "Ultrasound to go".

Butterfly was established in 2011 by Jonathan Rothberg, an entrepreneur who preferred deals in biology with the use of semiconductor technology. It took eight years to turn his concept for the ultrasonic device is a product. Instead of vibrating crystals it uses "capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer" short CMUTs - tiny ultrasonic transmitter on a semiconductor chip about the size of a postage stamp. The company is funded with $ 100 million.

One of his advisors, John Kendall, ultrasonic conductor in the emergency department of the Denver Health Medical Center. To the material from Butterfly scanner images, he says they are not as detailed as that of the great devices that have to be moved on rollers. but is crucial if one could get easier diagnoses. And here is the butterfly device so much cheaper and so easy to carry that comparison almost was not fair, "It is infinitely mobile. This is no longer the same device category. "Because of the low price Butterfly, however forced to sell many of its scanner to get to profitability.